From modernization theory towards the ‘clash of civilizations’: directions and paradigm shifts in Samuel Huntington's analysis and prognosis of global development1

This paper critically discusses Samuel Huntington's contribution to development studies. Long before his currently debated work on the clash of civilizations, Huntington wrote on the political order in changing societies. In this highly influential book of the late 1960s he argued on the basis of modernization theory for strong governments to accompany the inevitable and universal process of modernization. His clash of civilizations seems to argue from different assumptions. It insists on the essential differences between cultures based on religion. These cultural differences would now give rise to the most important conflict constellations. In his earlier and later work Huntington insists on the primacy of Western values and the need to defend them. The author critiques the assumptions, concepts and some of the empirical evidence of Huntingtons recent study.     

Tactics and strategies in political ecology research

Geographers working within political-cultural ecology and biogeography have often used a framework, or the general concept, of adaptation. The use of this blanket term, however, was and remains especially problematic for cultural-political ecology research, which tends to focus on a different scale of time–space analysis, while placing greater emphasis on the fine and coarse influences of political economy. To refine our understanding of daily activities that may lead towards adaptation, the concepts of 'tactics' and 'strategy' can bridge shorter-term phenomena that do not require the leap of scale implied by the loose use and implementation of the term adaptation.     

Rapid urbanization in a transitional economy in China: The case of Hainan Island

The outcomes and forms of urbanization and modernization in China following the reform and opening of the late 1970s have attracted extensive attention and competing interpretations in scholarly documentation. This paper focuses on Hainan Island, established in 1988 as the biggest special economic zone in China. Since then, considerable inflows of human as well as speculative capital have led to rapid real estate, in particular tourism-related, development. While urban expansion and improvements have been encouraged, the ongoing over-building, unregulated conversion of land use and degradation of the urban environment present serious social and economic problems. This paper summarizes the trajectory, causal factors and outcomes of this urban growth and consequent planning problems that make the island an atypical case in China's urbanization experience. We argue that the establishment of a practical framework combining socioeconomic planning, land use planning, and the management of both, is crucial to achieve sustainable growth for this transitional economy.     

Feminist Geopolitics Revisited: Body Counts in Iraq*

Feminist geography and political geography still represent two solitudes within the discipline. While increased traffic between these different parts of the discipline points to a degree of intellectual engagement, there remains a paucity of feminist thought in political geography. This article examines recent scholarship on feminist political geography, with a view to applying its insights to the struggles to protest and end political violence. The concept of feminist geopolitics is employed and recast, both as a bridging concept between feminist and political geography and as an analytical approach that has political valence in the context of the war in Iraq. Feminist geopolitics is revisited in this article, but remains a critical analytic in relation to body counts and other casualties in war zones.     

World cities and territorial states under conditions of contemporary globalization II: Looking forward, looking ahead

The influence of globalization on the future study of political geography is investigated through research on world cities. It is argued that political geography, like most social science, has been excessively state-centric in its organisation and that this will not help in understanding new transnational processes within contemporary globalization. Study of the state should not be abandoned, of course, but it must be set in a new context where much politics takes place beyond the state. This is illustrated through using the world city network as an alternative spatial framework to the world political map. The political geography of the twenty first century will have to incorporate traditional concern for political areas with new concerns for power networks in more subtle geographies than heretofore.     

Conflict studies and critical geopolitics — theoretical concepts and recent research in political geography

The political and economic upheavals during the past two decades have led to a new social and political organization of space on all levels of scale. To deal with the obvious changes, political geography had to rethink and to extend its traditional concepts. Transcending its long taken-for-granted radical approaches, the Anglo-American geography developed two conceptional paths, both of which are still relevant for political geography today:— a new awareness of regional differences in political action and culture— a new, constructionist awareness of the instrumentalization of geographical discourses for geopolitical purposes.With these theoretical concepts, political geography is examining a number of both traditional and new fields of research. Their heterogeneity is once again evidence of postmodern diversity and difference. They are characterized by both a new awareness of differentiation and a widening of the traditional viewpoint in three closely related respects transcending the traditional topics of political activity, the traditional political actors and the established levels of scale of politics. Based on the current literature it is possible to outline some major themes and perspectives of current political geography that are closely linked together, like knots in thematic networks:1. ecological politics and resource conflicts 2. territorial conflicts and boundaries 3. geopolitics and the politics of identity 4. globalization and new international relations 5. the symbolic representation of political power 6. regional conflicts and new social movements.     

课程思政视域下地图学课程教学探索与改革研究

立足《地图学》课程的特点,对其课程思政教育所具有的特色优势及主要方向进行了的梳理和总结,以期将无形的价值观教育与有形的专业知识有机融合,充分发挥该课程的育人价值,也为其他专业课程开展思政教学提供参考。     

智慧教学环境下“地理信息系统原理与应用”课程教学综合改革与实践

笔者以新一轮本科教育教学改革为契机,以社会经济发展、测绘地理信息行业领域对人才的新需求及课程教学问题为导向,以对地观测技术、大数据、人工智能、互联网+等新技术发展为驱动力,以智慧教学环境为教学框架,落实OBE理念,根据毕业要求反向设计课程目标,以学生为中心,对线上线下混合教学模式、故事教学法、协同育人、全过程考核等教学方法和管理方式进行深入探索,从课程思政、教学模式、教学内容、教学方法、教学组织、教学管理等方面开展多项综合改革和创新。以“地理信息系统原理与应用”教学实践为例,对相关模式和方法进行验证,取得了良好的教学成效,课程质量得到提升,有力支撑了毕业生核心能力的发展,相关成果获得多项教学奖励,得到学生好评和同行专家认可。     

World cities and international organizations: Political global-city status of Chinese cities

In this study, the authors use a political perspective to explore the relative global status of cities in China. Two questions are addressed. Firstly, by using international organizations as the subjects and quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution of their offices, the overall position of Chinese cities in the global distribution of international organizations is estimated. The results show that 22 Chi- nese cities are involved in international political affairs. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou dominate these activities and have high po- litical global-city status. Secondly, through qualitative analysis of Guangzhou City, the authors explore how its status as a center for intemational organizations has been shaped in recent years. The locational decision-making process is analyzed and the factors are demonstrated at both national and city scales. The definition of international organizations as used in this study refers not only to those supranational bodies that have the ability to manage relations across states （such as the European Union）, but also those in- ter-governmental organizations （IGOs）, international non-governmental organizations （INGOs） and diplomatic representatives and delegations that today also manage and regulate relations between and among states.     

Food system sustainability: Questions of environmental governance in the new world (dis)order

In a time of climate emergency, the question of environmental governance is not only critical, but also epistemic. How ‘environment’ is represented is as critical as how environmental crisis is managed. This essay addresses a debate of this kind by considering the complementary and contradictory relations between the concepts of ‘multi-functionality’ and ‘food sovereignty,’ as they define the global landscape. The juxtaposition of these concepts and their practical implications for political economy and ecology has its formative origins in a European-led debate over the role of agriculture, as a critical dimension of environmental governance. In this chapter I examine this debate as posing questions with broader, global significance.